Saturday, 15 August 2009

AR Rahman and several international artistes to create a special album to pay homage to the late Michael Jackson...

In a matter of few months, AR Rahman has lost two people he looked up to - sound engineer H Sridhar and Michael Jackson. Sound engineer H Sridhar passed away in December due to cardiac arrest and the cause of MJ’s death is still a mystery.

Consequently, Rahman has decided to put together a special album as a mark of respect to MJ. Of late, Rahman has been making several trips to the US because his secret dream project is ready to take off. Artistes from all across the globe will contribute to this album. It is believed that the album will have a few recreated songs of MJ, along with Rahman’s original compositions.

The King of Pop’s untimely and mysterious death unsettled Rahman. A source said, “The two deaths one after the other made Rahman realise the uncertainty of life. These tragedies have made him more spiritual.”

Rahman had earlier said, “Artistes and their art lives for ever. My late sound engineer Sridhar had brought me a video of the premiere of Michael’s Remember the Time when I was recording the track Kadal Rojave for my first movie Roja. That afternoon, that video inspired all of us. Now, there is no Sridhar and no Jackson anymore.”

Rahman was looking forward to working with MJ whom he had met during the Oscar Awards in Los Angeles earlier this year. Talking about his meeting with the pop star, Rahman had said, “MJ was concerned about contemporary developmental issues such as global warming, wars and their consequences. He asked me to compose a unity anthem on the lines of We are the World for him. I nodded in awe.”

When asked about the album, Rahman, who is going LA this week, said cautiously, “It’s too early to talk about it. Talking about it right now may jeopardise things.”